it's not much, but it's random

The Monktoberfest

I’ve just returned from The Monktoberfest held Oct 4-5 at the Portland Public Library, Portland ME.

Billed as “The developer conference where social meets technology”, it was all that and more, “bringing you the best speakers, talks you will hear nowhere else and – of course – the best craft beer the world has to offer.”

Held in downtown Portland, ME on October 4-5 in the Portland Public Library, which was a wonderful venue for several reasons, most notably:

It opens at a civilized hour (10am).

the Edward Gorey exhibit Elegant Enigmas is currently on display (through Dec 29).

An opportunity to meet some of the brightest minds in the industry, thinking grand thoughts, making stuff happen, and oh by the way, making the world better, greener,and/or smarter in the process.

Talks you will hear nowhere else.

They were all so good.

My personal favorite of the conference was @theSteve0’s “Dropping Science on Your Developer Ecosystem: Lessons from Ecosystem Management”. If you think the slides rock, wait til the video comes out. Great stuff.

We were fed like kings and queens with the best food and craft beer. Lunch featured a beer tasting. Dinner included lobster, steak and a beer tasting. I think Untappd got more traffic at the conference than Twitter. :-)

Ran into several old friends and made a few new ones.

Best of all, I drove home on a gorgeous sunny and warm Friday afternoons, filled with spectacular New England fall foliage displays, with my head a-buzz with new thoughts, insights, wiild ideas and energy. Now that I think about it, it’s probably a miracle I didn’t crash.

Anyway, awesome conference. Thank you, everyone: sponsors, hosts, speakers, attendees – the best part of the conference is definitely the people.